Biography
Currently (2025, since 2017) C. Mitcham is Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines, to which he is grateful for providing institutional hospitality. Undergraduate studies took place at Western Reserve (now Case Western) University, Stanford University, and University of Colorado (BA); graduate studies at University of Colorado (MA) and Fordham University (PhD). Faculty positions prior to the Colorado School of Mines: Berea College (Kentucky), St. Catharine College (Kentucky), Brooklyn Polytechnic University (since merged with New York University), and Pennsylvania State University. Visiting positions at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (1988), Universidad de Oviedo, Spain (1993), the Universities of Tilburg and Twente, Netherlands (1998), as Fulbright Professor at the Universidad del País Vasco (2003-2004), and Visiting International Professor at Renmin University of China (2014-2022).
His disciplinary education emphasized the history of Western philosophy, but even as an undergraduate he was struck by the world-dominating influence of engineering and technology. His father was a registered professional mechanical engineer; his own first job was as a mechanical draftsman for a small Bomarc missile subcontractor. Formative university influences were professors who had studied with Etienne Gilson and Leo Strauss. His first two books (1972 and 1973), written with a friend from Stanford, tried to call greater attention to technology while bridging analytic and phenomenological schools. In the 1980s, under the influence of Rustum Roy and Ivan Illich at Pennsylvania State University, he tried to bring philosophy of technology into the interdisciplinary Science, Technology, and Society (STS) studies field. This period also witnessed early involvements in teaching engineering ethics. During the 1990s he became attracted to Spanish language philosophy of technology and in the 2000s was stimulated by Robert Frodeman and Danial Sarewitz to see the relevance of science policy for grappling with contemporary engineering and technology. During this same period encounters with Chinese scholars and their cultural traditions stimulated efforts at deeper thinking about the nature and meaning of the increasingly fragile techno-lifeworld. His research received modest support from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, and other grant-making organizations. He was a founding member of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (1975-present); he profited from service on the American Association for the Advancement of Science Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (1994-2000) and expert study groups for the European Commission (2009 and 2012). The two most important publications in his curriculum vitae would probably be Philosophy and Technology: Technology as a Philosophical Problem (with Robert Mackey, 1972) and Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy (1994). Recently he has been trying to think the political philosophy of technology. — December 2024 |
Untitled- Emilie Mitcham
Thicket- Emilie Mitcham
I Thought, "Maybe"- Emilie Mitcham
By Way Of Explanation- Emilie Mitcham
Immediately, We're Lost- Emilie Mitcham
Insight- Emilie Mitcham
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